Method of manufacturing sheet metal



L. C. STEELE April 7, 1925.

1,532,607 METHOD oF MANUFACTURING SHEET METAI' All@ Fied April Patentedpr. 7, 1925.

A 1,532,607 PATENr orFIeE.

LAWRENCE C. STEEIJE, OF PITTSBURGH, PENNSYLVANA.

METHOD 0E MANUFACTURING SHEET METAL. g

Application `1ed Aprill 18, 1922. Serial No. 554,573.

To aZZ 'whom t may concern:

.Be it hown that I, LAWRENCE C. STEELE, a' citizen of the United States,and resident of Pittsburgh, in the count of Allegheny and State ofPennsylvania, ave invented a new and useful Improvement in Methods ofManufacturing Sheet Metal; and Ido hereby declare the following to be afull, clear, and exact description thereof.

My invention relates to a method of manufacturing sheet-metal.

In the present method of rolling sheets for tin-plate the heated barsare taken from the furnace in pairs and are passed one at a time insuccession through the rolls, the bars being fed by hand through. therolls and passed back over the top of the rolls for three or fourpasses. The rolled bars are then matched by placing one on top of theother, and are put back in the furnace to be reheated, whereupon theyare again brought y out and passed Itogether through the rolls.

This heatm of the matched-bars and passing them t rough the rolls iscommonly known as the run-over pass. The purpose of this last-namedyrolling operation is more to reduce the thickness of the pack than toobtain elongation, so that the metal can be doubled by hand, which isdone after this rolling operation. After the doubling, the pack, whichis 4p1y, is put back into the furnace, reheated, brought out, andrepassed the required number of times through the rolls,

' when it is opened (this is done by pulling `the sheets apart withtongs), is doubled again to form 8ply, 're-heated, and passed throughthe rolls a sucient number of passes to bring the pieces to thespecified ength. rEhe sheets are then sheared intothe re uired sizes andthe packs opened by hand, this being required because the sheets havestuck more or less together in the yprocess of rolling. The sheets arethen annealed and treated by subsequent operations to obtain the desiredproduct, such as tin-plate, sheetiron, etc.

. In this old method of handling the sheets in rolling, the bars, in therst instance when drawn from the furnace, were thrown on the door, wherethey were picked up by the rolier b tongs to pass through the rolls.After the' ars had been rolled they were matched on the mill-door, andin this matching were liable to pick up grease, scale or dirt from saidmiil-oor, and as the subsequent doubling was likewise done on themill-floor, the sheets had further opportunity to pick up grease, scaleor dirt, and in the rolling of y the sheets this foreign matter would berolled into the metal, and when the packs were separated the defectscaused by such dirt or scale would show up and the sheets would have tobe thrown aside as w'asters.

The object of my invention is to provide a method of manufacturingsheet-metal which dispenses with the run-over ass thereby doing awaywith the time an ex# pense of the extra heating and rolling of themetal, and thereby greatly reducing the cost. A further object of myinvention is to eliminate the danger of scale, grease or dirt gettingbetween the sheets when the sheets arematched or doubled on themill-floor, thereby greatly reducingthe waste and increasing theproduction accordingly for the same amount of time and labor expended.

In the accompanying drawing I Ahave illustrated suitable apparatus forcarrying out my improved method, although it is understood that thisapparatus may be modiied or changed without eifecting the scope of myinvention. Fig. 1 of the drawing is a plan view; and Fig. 2 is a sideelevation.

In carryin out 'l my improved method employ suita le heating-furnaces,such as indicated by the numerals 2 and 3, said furnaces being providedwith the doors 4 and 5,`respectively. The bars are heated in the furnace2 and when withdrawn therefrom Aare placed on a suitable feed-table 6which feeds the bars up to the rolls 7. Thebars are fed automaticallytothe rolls, and passing through said rolls are delivered on to thecatcher 8, illustrated diagrammatically. This catcher consists,generally of the skids 9 to receive the sheet or pack; the rotarycarrier 10 which lifts the material from the skids and lifts it up tothe conveyer 11 which in conjunction with an endless chain on thecarrier 10 and the endless chain 12 delivers the material over the toproll to the feedtable 12a to be returned through the rolls. this mannerthe metal is rolled back and forth through the rolls without comin incontact with the mill-ooiuuntil it has een reduced to the proper gauge,whereupon the sheets, after the nal pa, aredelivered 'to the feed-rolls13 to be discharged on the feed-table 14 composed of the conveyers 15'farhich travel at right angles to the travel .of

the rolls 13. From the table 14 the sheets are delivered to the inclinedfeeder 16 which ydelivers them to the raised platform 17,

Where the sheets are matched and doubled. This doubling ispreferablydone by a doubling machine, such' as that illustrated and described in apatent granted to me March 15, 1910, No. 952,052, although it isapparent that the doubling may be done by hand. The platform 17, beingraised above the millfloor, is free from the grease, dirt and scale ofsaid mill-floor, and consequently there is no liability of the sheetsgetting any of such grease, scale or dirt between them which results indefective sheets.

By my method, up to this point, I am able to dispense with the run-overpass, as the metal has been reduced in the rolls, Without reheating, toa gauge suitable for doubling, so that Whenvthe plates are delivered tothe platform 17 the matching and doubling takes place as one operation.

The sheetsthus matched and doubled into l-ply are then delivered to thefeed-table -18 to be delivered into the furnace 8, a supplementalfeed-table 19 being employed to lower the plate down through the opening5 of the furnace. In this Way, by having the doubling platform 17 andthefeed-table 18 at aproper height, there is no interference With theoperators Working around on the mill-Hoor below. The doubled-pack, afterbeinfr properly heated in the furnace 3, is i-vithrdrawn and deliveredto the feed-table 6, which is shifted over in position to receive thepack as it comes from the furnace 3, as clearly indicated in dottedlines, Fig. l, and the pack is delivered to the rolls to be passed backand forth through the same until reduced to the proper gauge, Whereuponthe pack is delivered by the feedrolls' 13 to the tables 15 and 16 to bediscliargedfon the doubling platform 17 where the pack is again doubledinto 8ply. The pack is again delivered to the furnace 3 to be reheatedand delivered back to the rollsl for farther rolling, and when the metalhas been brought to the propei1 length it -is thrown out in the rear forcooling.- While I prefer to do the doubling at an elevation it may bedone on the floor level in the rear of the mill, and carried thence by aconveyer to the furnace Without coming in contact with the mill-Hoor.

By my method the bars, or the pack rolled therefrom, never come. incontact with the mill-licor, and consequently do not pick up the scale,dirt or grease which results in so many Wasters, the doubling andmatching all bein done at an elevation Well above the mil -oon This doesaway with the congestion around the rolls Where the matching anddoubling are done on the millfloor, and leaves more space for theoperators, which makes it possible to reduce the number of'menrequiredto do the Work.

What I 'claim is:

1. The method of manufacturing sheeti metal consisting in rolling theheated bars back and forth in the rolls keeping the metal from contactWith the mill-Hoor during rolling until reduced to a gauge for `matchingand doubling, elevating the sheets mill-floor, passing the metal backand forth l through the rolls keeping the metal from contact with themill-floor until reduced to a gauge for matching'and doubling, elevatingthe sheets to a `point above the milldoor, matching and doubling at thiselevation, and passing the sheets While in elcvated position back to theheating furnace.

2l, The method of manufacturing sheetmetal consisting in delivering theheated bars from the furnace to the rolls in a plane above themill-Hoor, passing the metal back and forth through the rolls, keepingthe metal from contact with the mill-floor. until reduced to a gaugeformatching and doubling, doubling the metal in the rear of the rolls,and conveyinglthe metal in a plane above the mill-floor back to theheating furnace.

In testimony whereof I, the said LAW- RENCE C. STEELE, have hereunto setmy hand.

LAVRENCE C. STEELE.

